Beach amends Cooksey plan

ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH -- Narrower, one-way streets in the former Cooksey's Campground will ultimately save many old oak trees from destruction, the city agreed Monday.

In a 4-1 vote, Beach commissioners approved Ordinance 03-05, allowing McGarvey Development of Jacksonville to change its planned unit development for 116.8 wooded acres on State Road A1A annexed by the city last year.

Commissioner Grace Guido cast the dissenting vote. She did not offer a reason why.

This project has the working name of "Beachside" on its current construction drawings, but developer Jay McGarvey said after the vote that it will ultimately be called "Sea Grove St. Augustine."

Phase One, which will begin this summer, involves building 76 homes and some commercial space. All the homes will be sited on one-way streets designed to loop around to the main entrance road.

McGarvey's design consultant, G. Brian Wheeler, president of Genesis Group, Jacksonville, told the commission that the existing right-of-way of 50 feet should be changed to 30 feet and that sidewalks should be allowed on only one side of the street.

At build-out, Sea Grove will contain 325 homes, 40 of them multi-family, and five acres of commercial frontage.

Only one Beach resident addressed the commission about the issue. Dr. Patricia Gill pointed out that areas of tree cover were not represented on McGarvey's maps.

"We don't know all the information," she said.

McGarvey said so many old trees were on the property that he'd like to save them.

"We're allowed to take down the trees in the right of way," he said.

Mayor Frank Charles moved to approve the ordinance.

The commission also:

Decided to keep talking to the Trust for Public Land and the London family in Miami to work out an agreement on the London tract north of Sea Colony. Guido said the deal is a complicated one because the land is owned by a family trust.

"There has to be agreement with all members of the family. We may still get it," she said.

Directed City Attorney Geoffrey Dobson to investigate changing the city's lighting ordinance. Complaints about the bright lights of Wings, State Road A1A and A1A Beach Boulevard, were brought to the table by Commissioner Mike Longstreet.